Developmental work on the show is underway, and a production time-line and opening venue will be announced at a later date.
Friday, September 02, 2016
MOULIN ROUGE Headed to the Stage as a Musical
Developmental work on the show is underway, and a production time-line and opening venue will be announced at a later date.
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7 comments:
Super excited when I read this announcement. I'm a big fan of Moulin Rouge so I'm looking forward to seeing how they will transfer from screen to stage, specifically design and score wise.
I find it interesting that there is as much excitement as there is from the writer from the article about this upcoming production of Moulin Rouge. It does fit the current Broadway-quick-hit model of a piece of entertainment from a different medium which was originally extremely successful. I would be interested in learning more about how long this production has been in the works and when they are planning on beginning the run of the work. It seems like they could throw this production together without too much deep and extended effort to make it as meaningful as possible. I extend my concern about the article’s premature excitement to the leadership team on the production. Alex Timbers especially – in the terms of this article – seems like an interesting choice to become excited about. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson takes a very specific audience and execution to be enjoyed by the audience (I am a large fan of the show, however), and Here Lies Love was hardly a stage production. While it is clear that Timbers has an expertise in the field of “rock-musicals,” I question his previous success and – by extension – the potential success of this production given the path it appears to be following.
I am always interested to hear which movies are selected to become Broadway’s next biggest musical blockbuster. I think Moulin Rouge is a perfect choice because it is a film with both a great fan following and lends itself perfectly to being on stage. There are many different ways that this can be play be taken in being adapted for the stage. One of the many challenges that all movies becoming musicals face is the ideal of everything needs to happen live in front of an audience. There is no second space to set up another location or a way to edit in the effects. It all needs to happen live eight times a week. I have only seen the movie once, a long time ago, but I don’t think Moulin Rouge will run into these problems. It will now be really interesting to watch and see how this production evolves.
This article caught my eye because Moulin Rouge was one of the first film musicals I saw. I've seen Moulin Rouge dozens of times, and while it lends itself well to a cinematic medium I'm not sure how well it will translate onto the stage. I was also surprised by the fact that the musical is being produced so late after the film was released. It seems a better business move to release the musical quickly following the film in order to ride on it's coat tails. With the release of the musical being more than ten years after the release of the film I'm wondering how big of a stir it will actually cause. The film itself is theatrical, but it had so much more flexibility through film; the producers of the musical release will have a hard job of capturing the theatricality that was created so easily from the film.
I find it interesting that another movie is being turned into a stage adaptation, considering that the trend has seemed to be flowing the other way recently with movies such as Into the Woods. The fact that Moulin Rouge is being brought to Broadway after the recent productions of William Goldman’s theatrical version of the Stephen King “Misery" and also the recent film to stage adaptation of "Once," does concern me because It seems to be a trend of trying to capitalize on the name and popularity of the film. While there is a highly stylized theatrical sense to the movie I fear that there will be an attempt to rely too heavily on gimmicks that while heavily used in the movie I feel won't translate well to the stage. However as with most things I am skeptical about I hope to be wrong, for the movie is immensely entraining and I feel that Moulin Rouge could be a great show if handled properly.
I am a huge fan of Moulin Rouge the film and am ecstatic that the story is being realized into a full scale musical. Musical movies are such fun, however, they most often lack what makes a musical so exciting... the audience. I'm looking forward to its opening.
The creative team is stacked on the directing and writing side, and with Twentieth Century backing the project I am sure the budget will be quite large. I am eager to see who they bring on board to design and perform. Though the story and film will for sure bring audience members to the theater I hope that they do an Off-Broadway or out of town run before they open on Broadway. With such a famous story I hope they realize the perfection the audience will demand.
As a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann and his films, I am excited to hear that Moulin Rouge! will be adapted for the stage. Lurhmann's works always do a beautiful job of combining tragedy with fantasy and I believe Moulin Rouge is an obvious choice for a musical. However, Moulin Rouge is such an explosive, over-the-top, fantastical film that turning it into a stage production, if not done properly, could possibly disappoint fans of the film. Since the creative team seems to be strong, I don't doubt the production will be an amazing theatrical piece regardless of the opinions of fans of the film.
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